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Gray Expanse
'Cultural background: '''Various cultural Yunjin variations, Tarigani influences are strong near the southern border. '''Language: '''Yungo, houshigo (at the highest level of the society and in cultural circles), Aijuza in some minorities '''Religious influences: 'Ancestor Worship of various kinds, with 7 Temples and Ziaoism being the most popular forms. '''Population: '''Concentrated in the south-eastern portion, thinning out as you move north and west, but still quite populous. '''Original settlement: '''Many large settlements prior to imperial rule, probably some of the first settlements in the whole coastal area, predating Nittan, Tarizoku and Ganizoku. '''Major exports: '''Horse, quarry stone, salt, meat, linen '''Major imports: '''Lumber, paper, coal, clothing Geography and Climate The Great Yunjin Kingdom, or as it is more commonly known nowadays the Gray Expanses, covers the largest area of the empire, a region ranging from the coast all the way to the Windshorn Mountains and the Long Spine, from the Emerald Stream in the south to the Aijuro border in the north. The land itself is fairly varied in the region, but a large majority of it is plains or rolling hills, covered in a short, grayish-green herb. The region itself has a wide variety of weather patterns, but it is mainly cold and humid (by Nittan and Tarigani standards at least), with the winter lasting 3 to 4 months with nice quantities of snow in most regions, allowing for good irrigation of the land. Most of the region is crisscrossed with rivers of various sizes, the bigger ones allowing even small sea-going vessels to go on them with little issue. The Expanses have no very large mountains, but over the year, with the many quarries that were dug across the region, some areas were replaced by huge pits with their own ecosystem. There are no large, natural forests really left in the Expanses, but various areas are kept intact at the request of the Bureaucracy and the Onmyou, while small forests do exist, usually splitting farms and city borders or being maintained as hunting grounds. Coniferous trees are far more common than anything throughout the region, with the odd birch and sugar maple grove being maintained. History and war of annexation The Yunjin Kingdom was the strongest nation on the Eastern Seaboard (with the potential exception of the Faceless Empire, whose strength was never really calculated) prior to the arrival of the First Mikado and the formation of the Empire. At first a loose federation of city-states, a bit like Nittan, it was close to 300 years prior to the arrival of the Mikado that the first Yunjin king rose to power, subjugating all the city-states to his rule and establishing a centralized military and nobility, based around a common religious belief (which was established by the King). Over the year, he expanded his realm towards the west and the north, annexing parts of what would later be known as Aijukan and the Western Expanses. Skilled horsemen and masters in siege warfare, they were the major cultural influence on the seaboard until the Imperial Conquest, and affected most of the surrounding civilizations at that time, as can be seen in language, writing and art. Yunjin cities were built around temples to the ancestor, with tall walls carved from marble, granite and limestone. Research in weaponry led to the creation of the crossbow, the mail armor and the stirrup. Then, the Mikado’s forces crossed the Emerald Stream in full force. Unlike the Tarigani, which had folded like wet paper, or the Nittan, which were glad to have a centralized, non-oppressive leadership, the Yunjin showed extraordinary resistance to the invader. Religious fervor did motivate a lot of the early victories of the kingdom, as it saw the invader as unbeliever coming to prevent them from honoring their ancestors, and all were ready to sacrifice themselves for such a task. Sieges were long and costly for the newly founded Empire, both in money and manpower, and even the Mikado’s magic was barely enough to guarantee them victory, as he was getting weaker in his old age. The King of Yunjin, Liu Shin, challenged the Mikado to a duel at the battle of Ju Xhi Ma, during the early stages of the war, and many songs and poems were written on the battle, which the Mikado won, but only after taking a wound that prevented him from going on the front anymore. With the rise of the Second Mikado, the War in the North took a turn, with political manipulation and propaganda taking the forefront, allowing conquered people to keep their religion and even promoting it, putting the First Mikado as a Blessed Ancestor in the pantheon for people to worship. Battles and sieges still took place, of course, but rather than raw manpower and sorcery, the Empire used clever tactics and schemes to push the Kingdom back. Yunjin kings moved their capital back time and time again, but they never really gave up. It took close to 4 centuries of on and off warfare to truly quell the aspirations of the Yunjin kings, but the Empire was well established in the region and across the seaboard, but the fact that the Yunjin had fought so hard to conserve what was originally theirs gave them a strong sense of belonging and a superiority complex over other nations of the Empire. Economic activities Peace allowed Yunjin to grow even more than it did before. Farms are omnipresent in the countryside, growing a combination of wheat, rice, barley and linseed. Rice farming is far more common in the south and in the Emerald Stream valley, and golden rice introduced by the Onmyou to the region is by far the most popular, due to its ease of growth and high nutritional value, while linseed fields are incredibly common in the west, with almost all of the production being sent down south to the Tarigani textile mills. Salt and stone quarries are also very common throughout much of the region, being the primary exporter of salt in the Empire, and this particular trade is highly controlled by the bureaucracy by recommendation of the Onmyou, with military units doing rotations to protect the trade caravans and protecting the work camps. With the introduction of archipelago sugar cane, the production of maple syrup from the region has taken the back seat to other economic activities, but remains a steady income for the samurai who own maple groves and a sugar shacking is a popular activity with the lower nobility and the richer merchants. Raising animals is a lot more popular in the Expanses then in Tarigani and even in Nittan, with pigs, sheeps and various fowl being the most frequent animals on those farms, with water buffalos and musk ox being raised in some areas, mostly to sell for leather and meat, but is often seen as a symbol of status due to how expansive they are to raise, unlike the smaller herd animals. Leather tanneries are fairly rare due to their bad reputation, but a good tanner with a good workshop is sure not to lack work making saddles, boots and even leather coats. Horses, however, are raised everywhere in the region, being the primary supplier of mounts for the imperial and various regional militaries, competing directly with the Great Plains producers. Most large horse herds are owned by the Bureaucracy to provide for the needs of the military, and horse leather and horse meat is almost unheard of in Yunjin, the respect people have for the animals having developed into a taboo over the years. Military presence Yunjin military life is regimented and is built around a core of city guards combined with samurai units. City guards, mostly drawn from the peasantry to form ashigaru units, are mostly armed with long spears or short chopping swords and lightly armored. Select groups are also issued crossbows, usually a smaller, portable model capable of firing over a good range with little practice, allowing for a large number of projectiles to be fired effectively over a short period of time and dealing a maximum of damage. The heavier crossbows, like the siege crossbow and the heavy crankbow, are provided to units defending static locations or that carry around their own mounts for those devastating weapons. Samurai troops have pretty varied equipment, with glaives and spears (mainly qiangs, but jumon and bishamon yari can sometimes be seen as well, in the mix) being preferred over other weapons, but most professional soldiers also carry a straight sword and a saber as well, as the symbol of their office. Almost every samurai in Yunjin owns a horse or two, and cavalry makes up a large portion of the local military, with heavily armored riders charging formations to break them apart and chase down retreating enemies. Mounted archers, with bows and sometimes even mounted crossbows variants, are uncommon but provide close support to those heavy cavalry units when needed. Engineer units are also very popular in Yunjin regional armies, building field fortifications, traps and providing rapid field support. Those engineer units are usually composed of a few elite samurai with a large number of ashigaru “arms” to build and provide what they need. Culture Traditional Yunjin culture is built almost totally around ancestor worship and the temple. “Tradition” is actually a joke used throughout the empire when talking about Yunjin in general. “Why are you hanging your spear to dry, friend? Well, it is the ancestor’s tradition. We do not question tradition.” The less faithful in the region do mock this obsession with tradition as well, but only amongst themselves, as many would take great offense at anything that would be said against their religion. Yunjin poetic style is mostly based on rhythmic syllables based on fixed length (the Tarigani kanshin is based on this style, as an example), with most poems being used as religious observance. Longer, lyrical poems are also used to tell stories of honored ancestors and their struggle, many of them being used as songs rather than simple recitals. Reactionaries did build on this over the years, creating a whole “second-wave” poetic model built around praising nature, beauty and the living world, while following the original style and form of the religious poems. Stone sculpture depicting the honored ancestors are omnipresent in most cities, with every family trying to keep at least one such statue maintained at all time, with samurai families trying to one-up each other by commissioning work from better and better artists. Peasants often are not rich enough to buy and maintain stone sculpture, so clay statues representing their ancestors is far more popular for them, and tradition dictates that such statues have to be given to the bride and groom after a wedding to bless it. There was never really a painting and drawing tradition in the Expanses except for depictions of the honored ancestors on scrolls, so a lot of the local visual art is based on the Tarigani style, oftentimes depicting, of course, religious motifs, but the Yunjin were far quicker to adopt “new styles”, including the highly realistic styles, and counter-culture reactionaries have begun using this new style in order to push more and more non-religious works in the public. Yunjin cuisine is built around boiling and steaming most of their food, usually a serving of rice or bread along with some form of meat, with a preference for pork and poultry. Meat buns is a common treat, especially when sold by roadside shops, but like in Tarigani, bakeries have begun springing out just about everywhere, providing a different approach to bread than what is “tradition”, appealing to a certain crowd in the process. Tradition does dictate many things in regard to food, and a firm adherent of the Temple ancestor worship will have to eat very specific meals during his day, which changes depending on the time of the year. Amongst the dictates of the Temple is a global ban on shellfish, lizard meat and from eating animals not killed in a very specific way, but these bans are not hard to enforce in many cases but can be a pain for certain travelers (especially the ban on shellfish for someone from Tarigani). Maple syrup is used in many confections in the Expanses rather then honey, but it is slowly being replaced with cane sugar in some forms of cuisine due to the ease of storing and producing it as opposed to maple sugar. Pure maple syrup is still used to flavor tea in most cases, along as a dip for bread, a favorite amongst children. Cats and dogs are sometimes used in Yunjin cuisine, as those animals were not restricted to be eaten in any way by the Temple, but a ban was leveled on the practice by the Bureaucracy, under penalty of whipping, but this never stopped people in rural communities to do it, and local magistrates often have too much to worry about to truly prosecute this ban. Nittan goat cheese is viewed as a supreme delicacy in the region, with the Temple allowing people only to eat it on holidays, but nobody except the richest lords can really afford such a treat, along with Nittan grapes and olives. In terms of alcohol, unperfumed rice wine (by Temple rule) is the most popular drink in the south of the expanse, with beer being the most common drink everywhere else. While weaker than most other alcohol, beer is cheaper and easier to produce in large quantities, which makes it a favorite with the peasant class. Exports of beer have been controlled by the bureaucracy and magistracy, as usual, but Yunjin beer is smuggled everywhere by Chivalrous Organizations, but when sold at the Ninkyo mark up, it is not always the inexpensive option. Polo and other entertainment Social interactions in the Expanses are never complete until someone mentions polo. Jokingly, it is often said that it is tradition to say “polo season” for the period between mid spring when the snow melts to the time of the first snow fall. Polo teams are everywhere in Yunjin, with provincial, regional and national championships being held every year. Competitions with people of the Plains and Tarigani happen once every few years (five being the most common timeframe between those major competitions), usually with a victory by the team representing the Expanses, due to the extreme competitiveness of the sport in the region. While peasants are not allowed to play, they are invited to watch the games and, while gambling is illegal in the Empire officially, many Chivalrous Organizations have arranged for ways for people to bet on the result of a match. During the winter (“No polo season”), teams still train as they can and sometimes even participate in Snow Polo matches to keep their form. Other horse sports, like racing, dressage and even rodeo, are not as popular but have left their mark on the popular culture, with the less skilled polo players sometimes changing career to go in these new directions. Kite flying is incredibly popular in the Expanses, especially near the coast, with competitions on how long you are able to keep your kite in the air and design competitions bringing in large crowds as well. Another sport, more popular amongst the lower classes, is called Runball, where the players have a certain number of tries (usually 3 or 4) to cross an arbitrary distance carrying a sewn pigskin ball. The actual goal of the game is to reach “the end zone”, where the team scores a certain number of points, depending on how the ball crossed the end zone line, where it can be kicked in, carried in or thrown and caught in. Rules are not well-defined, as it is not a sport that is very well defined by the Bureaucracy, but it has been growing in popularity in recent years, especially as military practice exercises amongst ashigaru troops. Other forms of entertainment in the region are based around two things: theater and tile games. Theater in Yunjin territory is mostly outside of the religious spectrum, and is very physical in nature and involves not only lengthy texts but also a lot of physical prowess, like bare hand martial arts, acrobatics and feats of strength. There are quite a few themes which are used for these theatrical performances, but the more dramatic ones usually talk of revenge while the comedic ones are based on crazy situations, like a young man learning he is the son of a lord while he was raised a peasant and that has to fight off his rivals to claim his title. This focus on the profane rather than the spiritual makes the Temple very wary of theater troupes and gives them a bad reputation amongst the most faithful, and representations usually occur in Red Light districts or in out of the way place to avoid the wrong kind of attention. Tile games, mainly mahjong, shogi, checkers and chess, are very popular amongst all levels of population, with shogi and Kindai Chess being king amongst samurai and bureaucrats, while mahjong remains the go-to gambling game proposed by the Chivalrous Organizations. Category:Imperial Province Category:Yunjin